Editing Halo: Ghosts of the Gyre (section)

==Plot synopsis==
{{Summarize|section}}
{{Spoiler/begin}}
[[Adjutant Vigilance]], [[Facilitator-class ancilla|Sub-Monitor]] of [[Installation 07]], recounts when he was the [[Forerunner]] [[Lifeworker]] Genemender-Folder-of-Fortune to watch over the [[human]]s on [[Installation 07]], then known as Gyre-11. When [[Master Builder]] [[Faber-of-Will-and-Might]] claimed jurisdiction of the operations on the ring, he would take the [[human]]s to the [[Palace of Pain|Palaces of Pain]] on the ring to experiment on them to find a supposed cure to the [[Flood]], executing those who refused to comply and forcing the remaining humans to flee as a result, much as they had when they [[Plague War|first encountered]] the Flood. Vigilance then recalls how Faber used the ring on a [[San'Shyuum]] [[Battle of Janjur Qom|rebellion]], leading to many Station-tier to also rebel but were stopped by [[Builder Security]], who offered the survivors either servitude or execution. Genemender would be among those who remained loyal to his duties while some pretended to submit in order to sabotage Gyre 11, doing what he could to keep the humans under his watch safe. When the [[Librarian]] ordered the humans to be [[Mind transfer|composed]] to deny the Builders access to information their ancestors possessed, Genemender would compose himself so that he also would not be compromised, becoming Adjutant Vigilance. After thousands of years, he would observe humans arriving on Zeta Halo, deploying research bases and outposts. He comments that they believe Zeta Halo is an undiscovered frontier, when they are actually unknowingly returning home.

On [[2556#January|January 9, 2556]], Doctor [[Madeline Tress]], [[Xenobiology|Xenobiologist]] [[Dora Emmett]], Anthropologist [[Ellen Zoyas]], and their [[Marine]] escort [[Michael Quinn]] were on the ring as part of the [[Zeta Halo Project]]. It had been speculated that the non-sapient species on the [[Halo ring]]s were somewhat biologically customized to make them part of the ecosystem in some way. Madeline noted that the area of Zeta Halo they were in did not operate similar to the data she had studied of the automated habitably systems of [[Alpha Halo]], [[Gamma Halo]] and [[Delta Halo]]. While they grew acclimated to the Ring over the past few months, she partially brushed off the shared sentiment that one's presence on the Ring would in time make them a part of it as superstition, but could not help but think something about it was true.

Madeline knew how the procedure with the rings, with the [[Cartographer]] first needing to be found to reveal other facilities on the ring. However, the [[UNSC]] were unable to find Zeta Halo's Cartographer, forcing them to use [[OQ-45 Honeybee]] drones to scan the surface. However, one area of the ring seemed to make the Honeybees avoid it. Madeline suspected it was due to some sort of [[Forerunner]] camouflage system, like [[Baffler]]s, [[Dazzler]]s, [[Misdirection filter]]s or a [[Hard light]] hologram, and sought to be the first to discover it due to the element of competition among the other researchers because of Zeta Halo's elusive nature. However, a crash of [[Rhinok]]s were in their way. Using a pair Honeybees to make the [[Rhinok]] migrate earlier than usual and another team of researchers follow close in a [[M15 Razorback]], they found a Baffler by the dust the Rhinoks had kicked up. As she and her team moved in, Madeline was excited for what they would find, be it the Cartographer, some other vital facility or even the installation's [[Monitor]]. 

After passing through the Baffler, they moved single-file down a sandy trail with Quinn taking lead. Ellen tried to activate a pad used to control the Honeybees to test if their technology would work within the Baffler, which they had turned off as a precaution before entering, and found that it would not activate. The group arrived into a bowl with what seemed like an ancient stone city within, which looked similar to the structures Madeline had seen in footage of Delta Halo. Among other discoveries, they found a egg-shaped glass orb hovering over a basin in the center of the area. The group began unloading their climbing gear and made their way to the orb, with Quinn seemed to have heavily fascinated with it. As they approached, Madeline noted how it seemed to be making the sound of flowing water which she had heard earlier, which conjured an image of ocean waves in her mind. She resisted the urge to touch it, and suddenly recalled a moment in her childhood standing on Brighton beach on [[Earth]] feeling sand under her feet. She did not know if this sensory experience was coming from a powerful moment of her own memory or if the device was projecting or reflecting it. She then wondered if the others had seen something and what the device was used for, but knew they still had thirty-six hours before their next scheduled check-in which gave them plenty of time to explore and research the temple. 

Adjutant Vengeance records another log, stating that nothing on Zeta Halo do not truly die, whether it was the human [[ancestors]], the Flood or even himself. He then claims that absolute and final death is a kindness, something he had learned from an [[Gamelpar|old human long ago]]. He then recalls what the Forerunner had done of the humans after their [[Battle of Charum Hakkor|final defeat]] at [[Charum Hakkor]], describing how they had been reverted to a pre-industrial state while they were fully aware of what was happening to them driving them mad as their bodies and minds were changed over days until they were unable to understand their own knowledge. They were then imprinted with the memories of their ancestors to awaken and divulge their secrets to the Forerunners or discover new forms of insanity. He notes the humans now on the ring had been on the ring for a year and how they continue to search for the Cartographer, but Vengeance knows the ring will not give them its location or the location of other areas like the Palaces of Pain, [[Silent Auditorium (location)|Auditorium]] or the [[Flood containment facility|containment facilities]]. He also knows protocol forbids him for reaching out to the humans and disregards the idea of finding [[117649 Despondent Pyre]] for an exception, knowing that while the Monitor is present she was indisposed and would take a hundred millennia to find her. Vengeance resigns himself to simply watch the humans, but fears what would stir in their [[Geas]]es, believing the secrets within are worthy of fearing as much as the secrets of Zeta Halo.

For the past three seasons since they came to the temple, Madeline would have a recurring dream. A vast flotilla of thousands of ships gathered around a yellow-brown planet. The larger ships begin bombarding the planet with their weapons while smaller ships use gravity-slings to catch chunks of the planet that had been blown into space and throw them back into it. Madeline notes that it doesn't feel like a concluding action, but a prelude. The dream would always come to an end as a new fleet of ships emerge from [[slipspace]] and the capital ships retreat behind civilian haul-craft and commercial vessels. Madeline wonders if the ring, the temple or some other force is trying to communicate with her, but she is unable to understand it, and fears leaving the area will cause the dreams to diminish and that there is something imbued in the that wants and needs to be known. She believes that she and her group are unable to leave even if they wanted to, as the Baffler had concealed their exit. She notes how the temple offered them refuge on the day they arrived by opening ways to a tall trapezoidal antechamber that they use as their living quarters. They also found scraps of worn cloth and the remains of a stone table and jugs, which Madeline took as evidence of a previous civilization that inhibited the area, either an ancient human population or someone else.
 
On [[2557#June|June 17, 2557]], Madeline heads out, noting the rest of her team who had taken to worshipping before the device as they had every morning. She watches as they mutter words that form in the orb, which takes them from their minds. But they do not worship the device itself, but a machine that visits them twice a season they insist is named [[Shalimanda]] which they had learned from the orb and claim to hear whispered in their eyes on its coming. They first saw Shalimanda in the waters near their domicile as it scanned a wrecked [[Warthog]], thought they do not know what happened to it or its passengers. The construct dubbed Shalimanda was a silvery-grey and had a circular dish-shaped head that housed three blue eyes and a series of arms, grapplers, claws and two bipedal legs underneath. As it worked, the others would painting patterns and glyphs in a language Madeline did not recognize in handmade paints and pigments. She once knew what the construct's true name was but had lost it to the orb when she once joined the others. Since then, she pledged to not let it take anything else from her mind and to hold onto what knowledge she could. When she entertained the others' delusions, she would instead recall memories of her home, of when she and her mother would fish in an area they were not supposed to and would hide on the stomachs in the tall grass, something that she later thought her mother put on as some sort of game. However, the orb had stolen that memory from her, leaving Madeline to struggle to recall the bullet points and details of what had happened and the emotions replaced with a dull numbness.

Despite forgetting the original name of the Shalimanda construct, Madeline is certain it served a unique purpose separate from other [[Sentinel]]s, where machine custodians like it tend to the biosphere of the section of Zeta Halo they reside, enriching and seeding the ground to provide sustenance. This cycle of harmonious balance was Madeline's partners worship through Shalimanda, eschewing any aspect of their previous lives not in service to it. Madeline, however, is drawn to a different mystery and goes to pursue her studies while the others continue worshipping Shalimanda. She makes her way into a tunnel through a hole located under where the orb is located, though is unsure of how deep it is without any equipment to measure like the Honeybees. Regardless, she uses the rope the team had carried to descend, giving her about 800 meters to work with. Before she does, she sees a light which fills her with a mixed sense of vertigo and longing, craving the discovery but somewhat fearing what she may find. However, she knew she would not reach the light today. As she descended, she was suddenly felt an electrified itch her back. Dark spots filled her vision when she looked up where she came as the light below began to enlarge her shadow, making her feel larger and more cumbersome than she was, and the sounds above diminished to only those from and around her.

She tried to imagine the Forerunners, who had made the rings as both superweapons and biological preserve had made the world felt real. It reminded her when her parents took her to see excavations of the ruins of ancient human civilizations, and struggled to feel the essences of those who used to live there. However, she was unable to feel anything like those places in the tunnel, not knowing how far down it went, where it led to or the purpose it served. She notes that despite it not being alloyed and pristine like other Forerunner tunnels used for their machines, there was a logical structure to it as the ringed circumference of the tunnel would pull inward enough to let her stand every 70 meters. As she continued descending, the air began to grow warmer and motes of blueish light began dancing around her and form into clusters like they were trying to form something before disappearing. Not long after, she reached the end of her 800 meters, much to her quiet frustration and brief urge to let go of the rope and fall towards the light, which she was no closer to. After reaffirming her mission to hold onto what she learned here while her teammates had fully given themselves to the orb and they had been cut off from the UNSC, she then noticed that the light motes she had seen were now imbuing themselves into the wall before her. They began to form runes, the same ones her teammates were painting on Shalimanda, which spelled out "''enemy within.''" Madeline was able to speak it out despite not understanding of the language, which she suspected was knowledge from the orb.

In another log, Adjutant Vengeance recalls Genemender's last visit to his family's [[domicile]] before being stationed on Zeta Halo, noting that his family members were in different rates, something unusual in Forerunner society. His mother was a [[Warrior-Servant]], and her wives and sister were [[Builder]]s. When his sister asked why he chose to be a Lifeworker, he told her that the one difference between his rate and the Builders was that while they have similar methods of shaping inanimate material and sentient life, Lifeworkers had to collaborate with their subjects to complete their work. While they can guide and persuade patterns, it is only through the act and results of living and choice that lead to prosperity of failure that their work takes shape. He uses the Librarian's work with the humans as an example, seeding them with the potential of developments to parallel the Forerunners for their inheritance of the [[Mantle]], most notably deference to her guidance. Genemender had questioned her on it on multiple occasions, arguing that humans would become arrogant and zealous and repeat the same mistakes the Forerunners had if they discovered that path that had been laid out for them. He questioned why Librarian's presence and guidance of the humans was so strong if she believed in their potential, if they were taking away their capacity for choice or if she was hoping they would learn of their influence and rebel against it to serve a grand design of independence. He states that it is perhaps easier when inanimate material does not conform to the designs and structures of its architects that Builders forget, while to shape life for protection and prosperity needs failure and pain as the path for true wisdom. Adjutant Vengeance fears he is no closer to understanding where their influence on the humans ends and their choice and agency begins as he looks at their state in current state of the galaxy, seeing the humans had become arrogant after their victory in the [[Human-Covenant War]], the [[Halo Array]] being [[Battle of Installation 00|primed]] [[Operation: FAR STORM|twice]] from [[Installation 00]], the [[Ur-Didact]]'s reawakening with the [[Composer]], and now [[Cortana]] taking over the [[Domain]] and [[Guardian Custode|old weapons]] to impose the rule of the Mantle upon all thinking life. He fears this growing imbalance in [[Living Time]] caused by all of these events would soon reach an inevitable and escapable nexus point that would reshape or destroy the galaxy again. He knows that Cortana has claimed Zeta Halo as her throne of power and started working her way into the ring's systems and mustering her forces. While he knows Cortana may be wise enough to not release the Flood on the ring, she does not yet know about the "others" also buried within.

On [[2558#November|November 1, 2558]], Madeline notes that the Shalimanda Sentinel has not appeared for two seasons and its lower Sentinels appear at a reduced number. As a result, the area Madeline and her team reside in have become less habitable. They spend a few days gathering wood to build a canoe to leave, which Madeline had named ''[[Völuspá]]'' after the {{UNSCShip|Völuspá}}, the ship that had brought them to Zeta Halo, in a failed attempt to stir Dora, Ellen and Michael's memories. As they rowed downstream, Madeline wondered if they would pass through the region's border and be found by the UNSC, who had likely logged, forgot and reduced them to a cautionary tale.  However, the high rock walls that lined the side of the stream which were near impossible to climb. The wall left suddenly parted to a sandy bank that lead to a cave. The group dock the canoe on the shore, trapped in the area as stream continued to a waterfall that fell into open space with the walls lined with Forerunner material they would be unable to climb. They then see a [[Sentinel manufacturing facility]] in the distance above a green field surrounded by mountains with a [[Sentinel factory]] at its center. They watch as the farming constructs they had seen around entering the factory and leaving armed with weapons. 

Suddenly, an explosion strikes the facility. As the group scrambles into the cave for cover, they hear the voices of [[Adjutant Recourse]] and Cortana as they battle above the surface. Cortana orders Recourse to surrender and tell her where Despondent Pyre is located, which they refuse. While the others watch the battle around the factory, Madeline is drawn deeper into the cave in hopes of finding a way beyond the border. Instead, she finds a painting that resembled prehistoric cave paintings depicting human and alien figures twisted and piled upon each other, their arms holding a metal disc a depiction of the [[Primordial]] with a black ring behind them all. Madeline is suddenly struck with an overwhelming sense of dread as the old spirits within her begin to convulse and the instinct to return to the orb, apologize for her defiance and have it take her memories. She stumbles back and collapses as the memories of the old spirits begin manifesting and speak as one.

Madeline then experienced a memory of a [[Florian]] she is unable to remember their name. They and their San'Shyuum Executive Officer, [[Va'larr]], had been assigned by the [[Lord of Admirals]] to test a potential cure to the Flood they learned from the Primordial. They had gathered a flotilla of military and civilian craft over a world that had been fully consumed by the parasite and inoculated the crews with artificially programed genes. With dozens of worlds and an escalating war with the Forerunners as they crossed into their ecumene, the Florian hoped this plan would destroy the parasite if it worked or help the Forerunners see the scale of the threat the Flood posed and act accordingly if it did not. However, the Forerunner leaders seemed to have more faith in their ability to control, which the [[Human-San'Shyuum alliance]] knew would be possible with the Flood, or they would have joined their fight against it centuries ago. After bombarding the planet below with their capital ships' weapons and smaller craft using gravity slings to hurl asteroids into the surface to call in a fleet of Flood controlled ships, the Florian ordered their military ships to pull back, putting the civilian ships between them and the Flood, who quickly boarded the ships and consumed the crews. However, because of the altered destructive genes of the crew, those infected quickly died.

Another voice tells that after humanity was defeated and devolved, they learned that the Flood had simply faked that the altered genes were a cure. The voice laments that humanity was simply in the way of a greater war between the Forerunners and [[Precursor|those who created them]], that their sacrifices to stop the parasite was for nothing, and that the Forerunners would tear humans apart to learn their non-existent secrets. It cries out asking when humanity would be free of the games of gods and demons to command their own fate.

Madeline then woke up two days after the battle at the Sentinel factory, who his teammates had put her on their canoe and was rowed back their domicile. When she asked what happened after leaving the cave, they tell her simply that Shalimanda is lost.

In another log from Adjutant Vigilance, he states that the way of the Mantle and a fundamental part of the universe is that unlearned history is repeated and those caught in its wake are forced to live it again around another corner from another angle. He notes that despite assuming control of the Domain and tools for control, Cortana had found none of the Forerunners' wisdom, using them to instead to subjugate the races of the galaxy before facing and failing the test of rebellion. A tenet that is core to the Mantle was that unfair advantage, mindless destruction and pointless death and misery present an imbalance of forces and reduces the flow of Living Time, noting the vanquished human who aided [[Mendicant Bias]]'s attempt to claim Zeta Halo in vengeance. Similarly, Cortana, whose rule was defined by the tenet, had [[Razing of Oth Sonin|destroyed]] the [[Doisac|homeworld]] of the [[Jiralhanae]] and ignited a similar vengeful rage, leading to the [[Banished]] to move on Zeta Halo to claim it and the [[Harbinger|herald]] of the [[Endless]]—the enemy within. He states that the Mantle of Responsibility and the Domain were more than technology and the means of controlling it, they are cultural heritage, ancestry and belonging. But he sees the belonging the Librarian left behind for humanity was of dominion and empire. He asks how the mistakes the Forerunners made be learned from if only their weapons can be claimed and studied, noting that the Forerunner [[Criterion]] had hidden their final, terrible secret and that heritage is a matter of truth defined by whose story is told and whose is suppressed. He wishes to recommend Zeta Halo's self destruct as he had done before, but was still unable to contact Despondent Pyre. Instead, using a loophole in his protocol for submonitors not to take direct action, he would active more [[Lifeworker beacon]]s to draw humans to baffler-concealed facilities to protect them from the Banished. However, he fears that more extreme measures may be needed if the presence and pitch of the humans' gene-songs become another factor in the cascade of events or if the Flood escapes containment, ultimatly concluding that the [[Offensive Bias|metarch]] must be deployed.

On [[2559#December|December 13, 2559]], Madeline and her group watch as the Banished arrive on Zeta Halo, [[Gydrozka Workshop Breaching Pod|drop pods]] and prefabricated occupation bases are dropped by their "star boats" and meet with defensive fire from the ring. Madeline's teammates believe they are safe within the border from what is happening, only for one drop pod to be knocked off course by weapon fire and crash land. A [[Sangheili]] warrior clad in bloodred armor with a horned helmet emerges from the pod, and the sight of it makes the Ancestor spirits scream in a unified rage that brings Madeline to her knees. Quinn declares that Shalimanda would save them and that the reason it was wreathed in armor was that it had foreseen that day before he readied a hand-carved spear instead of his MA40 assault rifle and charging the Sangheili. It activates a [[Sangheili point defense gauntlet|point defense gaunlet]] and roars to meet Quinn's challenge. As Dora and Ellen scatter, Madeline experiences another memory; of ancient Sangheili capturing humans. When she returns to the present, she sees the Sangheili had killed Quinn and was now firing upon the others. As Quinn wondered if they were going to die here, the ground suddenly shook. She saw a section of the ring fracturing before the ring began entering a [[slipspace portal]]. The Sangheili lunged for Madeline as the shockwave struck, sending her and the Sangheili into the pit.

As she falls, Madeline experiences another memory of the Sangheili bringing the humans to Charum Hakkor, now occupied by the Forerunners. Gathered in the [[Citadel Charum]], the humans were brought to be composed. While some passed cleanly, others tried to escape their punishment that the Forerunners call a kindness. Madeline awakens at the bottom of the pit in a cavern, though she had expected to have been killed in or from the fall like the Sangheili had. She sees the blue motes she had seen when she first descended into the tunnel and that the only way out was a hole in the ceiling. Getting up, she sees a [[Totem Ring]] on a small dias and waited to hear if the voices of the old spirits within her to tell her what it was, only to hear nothing. The blue motes approach the totem ring and coalesce at the center to show a vision of a garden world before a [[Abaddon|a winged being of indigo light]] appears in the sky and begins to sing, though Madeline does not know if it was attempting to communicate with her as she knew only the two words of history the ring imparted to her: ''Enemy within''. It then occurs to her that the place her team had found was a transitory place, that their experiences on the ring was a collective kenopsia, something she knew anyone in her current position would have. Madeline knew there was no way out of the cavern,  but wouldn't have taken one if there was, seeing that oblivion one way or another was their salvation. She sees that a greater compelling force will supersede free will, regardless of self-destructive consequences, because to ignore it and keep living was true madness, believing it better to die knowing. Though she does not know what she will become, Madeline enters the ring carrying the living memory of their Ancestors and wonders if something from humanity's past could be a key to their future as the blue motes swirl around her and take her off Zeta Halo.
{{Spoiler/end}}